[ih] Impact of history on today's technology [was: why did CC happen at all?]

[Brian E Carpenter]

On 06/09/2014 01:48, Dave Crocker wrote:
> On 9/5/2014 5:41 AM, Scott Brim wrote:
>> I believe I understand exactly what you mean. Grand vision is limited by
>> what's possible at the time, and future grand vision is limited by what
>> is in place. Consider MIBs (and SGMP/SNMP), and what it's been like
>> trying to get rid of them.
> 
> 
> I remember hearing Kleinrock once comment on the cycle of relative
> costs, between memory (and maybe cpu) vs. communications.  Expensive
> comms lines bias design one way.  Expensive computering bias in another.
>  Having both be expensive at the same time probably has yet another effect.
> 
> We've similarly had cycles for centralized vs. widely distributed
> (computing arrangements.  PCs made distribution feasible at scale.
> Beyond the technical point of rapidly-varying scale that the term 'cloud
> computing' originally meant, it's come to be nothing more than classic
> remote computing.

Getting back to Dave's question yesterday:

> Perhaps you have in mind something like the technological issue of
> typewriter keys getting stuck against each other if the typist went to
> fast, thereby motivating the qwerty layout?

It could be almost anything that has enduring effects. Another one is that
whatever design compromise led to 1500 bytes for Ethernet in 1983 affects
every discussion today about IPv6 PMTUD and fragmentation. However much
the technical constraint is obsolete, we can't get rid of it.

    Brian